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RI conservationist receives award from British royalty

At a recent ceremony in London hosted by Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, Indonesian conservationist Hotlin Ompusunggu received the 2011 Whitley Award for her conservation work in West Kalimantan.

“Dr. Hotlin is a dentist from Alam Sehat Lestari, who received the award from Princess Anne in a ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London,” Whitley Awards 2011 spokeswoman Pam Beddard said Friday, as quoted by Antara.

Hotlin is a program manager at Alam Sehat Lestari, a health and conservation charity organization whose office is situated near Gunung Palang National Park in Indonesia’s West Kalimantan province.

She has been fighting against illegal logging in the area by offering low-cost but quality dental and medical treatments to 60,000 local villagers on condition they take part in the organization’s reforestation and conservation work.

“The award for Dr. Hotlin for her contribution to conservation makes Indonesia proud. I’ve seen how impressed Princess Anne was at what Dr. Hotlin has been working on,” counselor and acting head of chancery at the Indonesian Embassy in London, Tumpal Hutagalung, said.

As part of the award, Hotlin received 30,000 pounds sterling in a project grant, which was donated by Goldman Sachs.
The Whitley Awards are given annually by the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) in efforts to “recognize and celebrate effective national and regional conservation leaders across the globe”.